Author: Mike Fleming

MGM has hired veteran entertainment marketing exec Stephen Bruno to be its Chief Marketing Officer. Bruno will leave Netflix to take the post and he starts at the studio in April.
Bruno has solid experience both in theatrical film and television series…

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has added Darren Aronofsky, Jake Gyllenhaal, Dee Rees, and Martin Scorsese as guest speakers for the 50th Anniversary Gala on Monday, April 29, 2019 in Alice Tully Hall. They will join previously announced Pedro Almod…

Disney chiefs Alan Horn & Alan Bergman visited the Fox lot yesterday, meeting with executives who are on tenterhooks wondering what will become of Fox’s vaunted feature film program. I hear there will be clarity certainly before the week is o…

EXCLUSIVE: The hot package that has several networks salivating is a series that Oscar-winning screenwriter Steve Zaillian will write and direct that focuses on Tom Ripley, the sociopath anti-hero of the Patricia Highsmith crime novel series. Sources s…

EXCLUSIVE: AGBO, the production venture launched by Avengers: Endgame directors Joe & Anthony Russo, just won an auction for All Fun and Games, a genre spec script by JJ Braider that had several bidders chasing it. The film has a strong concept and…

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Rooker has been set to star alongside Dylan O’Brien in Monster Problems, a potential franchise film that Michael Matthews (Five Fingers for Marseilles) will direct with Shawn Levy producing at 21 Laps. Rooker will play Clyde, a…

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Players has closed a deal for the Justin A. Reynolds YA novel Opposite Of Always. The film will be produced by Temple Hill’s Marty Bowen, John Fischer, and Isaac Klausner.
The novel was just published by Katherine Tegen/Harpe…

EXCLUSIVE: In competitive bidding, Netflix acquired the rights to Mary Kubica’s upcoming suspense novel The Other Mrs. Netflix will turn the book into a feature film. The novel will be published in the U.S. by Park Row in 2020.
Here is the logline: Whe…

EXCLUSIVE: New Line has set Tony-winning actor Leslie Odom Jr. for a starring role in The Many Saints Of Newark, the prequel film to David Chase’s iconic HBO series The Sopranos. He joins Alessandro Nivola, Vera Farmiga, Ray Liotta, Jon Bernthal,…

EXCLUSIVE: MGM Television and Mark Burnett have made a multi-year deal with Bethenny Frankel to generate unscripted TV projects that she will produce, some of which will be star vehicles for her.
Burnett, the MGM Worldwide Television Group Chairman, ma…

EXCLUSIVE: Though Warner Bros chairman and CEO was felled by the emails and texts divulged by THR that pointed to a sexual relationship with actress Charlotte Kirk and an inference that he subsequently tried to help her get film roles, the actress rema…

Warner Bros is looking like the favorite to capture King Richard, a spec script by Zach Baylin that has Will Smith poised to play Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams. This deal will fall in the $60 million budget range, making it…

EXCLUSIVE: Redemption and second chances have long been superhero movie staples, and today it looks like life has imitated art. I’ve learned that Disney has reinstated James Gunn as the writer-director of Guardians of the Galaxy 3, and I’ve…

EXCLUSIVE: Hours after finding herself the subject of a second unflattering article in The Hollywood Reporter, actress Charlotte Kirk has broken her silence. The followup was about her pressuring Avi Lerner and others to give her a role in the Hellboy …

CAA has signed the Duffer Brothers. Matt and Ross Duffer have joined the agency for representation in all areas, as they gear up for the third season of their global phenomenon Netflix series Stranger Things. The twin siblings launch that third season …

EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studios is setting Destin Daniel Cretton to direct Shang-Chi, its first superhero movie tentpole franchise with an Asian protagonist. Cretton is directing Just Mercy, a film he wrote that stars Brie Larson and Michael B. Jordan.
This …

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures has hired Matt Reilly as Executive Vice President, Production Development. Reilly becomes the latest film production executive to leave the Fox lot as the studio prepares to be absorbed by Disney.
Reilly spent the past six…

EXCLUSIVE: In its first go picture, Limelight has set an April start date for Palm Springs, a Max Barbakow-directed comedy that will star Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti and J.K. Simmons.
The comedy has a script by Andy Siara (Lodge 49), and it will be p…

EXCLUSIVE: Dave Franco is set to make his directing debut with the horror thriller The Rental, and Alison Brie and Dan Stevens will star with Sheila Vand and Jeremy Allen White. The film will be fully financed by Black Bear Pictures, which is producing…

EXCLUSIVE: There were two big movie spec properties in play this week, and one of them is now spoken for.
In a high six against seven figure deal, Paramount Pictures tonight won Assisted Living, a script by Kay Oyegun that had Sony, Endeavor Content an…